Generally, heat energy is converted into electric energy, which then is transmitted to the location of energy consumption. This, however, is accompanied by considerable energy losses.
It has therefore been suggested to cleave a suitable chemical compound in an endothermic reaction, utilizing energy cheaply available at the location of separation. The reaction products so produced are conveyed to the desired location of heat consumption, there to form again the chemical compound in an exothermic chemical reaction. The heat energy released thereby is utilized, and then the compound may be recycled to the location of the separating reaction.
Suitable compounds suggested for such reactions are, for example, metal hydrides which may be cleaved with heat into hydrogen and liquid metal. After the conveyance of these products to the desired location of heat consumption, which is not possible economically over great distances because the metal is in fused state, a recombination of the metal hydride is accomplished, heat is obtained and it is utilized in the desired manner (See U.S. Pat. No. 3,075,361 for details of such process).
A considerable improvement in the combination of endothermic and exothermic reaction sequences was accomplished by using for this purpose the conversion of methane to a mixture of carbon monoxide, water vapor, carbon dioxide and hydrogen and the re-formation of methane from these constituents in an exothermic methanization reaction (See German Pat. No. 1,298,233 for details of such process). In this manner, only gases need be conveyed from the endothermic reaction site to the exothermic reaction site, so that even very great distances between the places of heat production and heat consumption could be bridged economically.